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Friday, June 29, 2007

A Markel Trainer in the Spotlight

Angela Hecker-Jackson Finds Success in Kentucky, Developing Young Dressage Horses (Among Other Things!)
by Kelly Gage for DressageDaily

Amidst the annual Kentucky Dressage Association’s Annual Dressage Show at Kentucky Horse Park, Angela Hecker-Jackson is having a good time.

With both her and her students scoring well into the sixties and seventies, her homebred stallion, Rolex H. (River H.) has taken the FEI Six Year Old classes with scores approaching a near eight and Twilight (Olympic Ferro), who graduated from FEI Young Horse last year, is doing extremely well at third level.

But with Jackson, it isn’t about the ribbons; it’s always been about the horse.

Strictly adhering to the classical training scale, the German ex patriot Grand Prix jumper rider turned dressage rider cites inspirations and an educational resume that reads like a who’s who of classical horsemanship, with names coming from both dressage and jumping.

“Two people have influenced me the most, Karl Mikolka and Mike Poulin, who I train with currently,” Jackson said. “When I first met Karl, he was incredibly skeptical because I was a German Show Jumper and wanted to learn dressage. He called me the Germany Spy and made me come to several clinics before he would even let me ride with him. He really opened me to the idea of dressage.”

Jackson also rode with George Morris in a clinic earlier this year.“I was warned about George Morris before I rode with him,” Jackson added. “According to people he didn’t like women and he didn’t like warmbloods and I was both those things. But when I got there, he was honest, upfront and didn’t take anything less that great. That man proves that good horsemanship is universal, and the training scale could be applied anywhere.”